Art in a Time of Climate Crisis: Part II
From their production processes, to the themes they discuss; artists are turning to the environment and raising crucial awareness.
Here is the second in a series of group articles – this time curated by Francesca Wilson of The Auction Collective (London)
We asked The Auction Collective to take part in our new series. Thanks go to curator Francesca Wilson and Collective founder Tom Best. Featured here is a collection they’ve titled Green Perspectives – a grouping made from their upcoming Spring Auction.
The decision to exhibit environmentally minded artists is a reflection of the Collective’s overall business outlook. It’s not only artists who can make an impact at this time; but arts organisations and galleries too. The Auction Collective is keen to work as much as they can online, sharing artists’ works via their comprehensive website and active social media channel. They are creators of the world’s first virtual bidding paddles; they consider the footprint of shipping their art and always choose responsible materials in the office and with packaging artworks. In light of the Coronavirus pandemic, they’ve moved their next event online. It’s worth noting here that virtual exhibitions should be considered in relation to the climate crisis too – we’ll likely be seeing more of these in the coming years…
Artist Sophie Mason at work
Green Perspectives
Francesca Wilson
Art is an opportunity to look beyond oneself: to see the world from another perspective. With an increasing need to shift our focus to the environment, the position of an artist to encourage us to notice – and to therefore care for our natural world – is an important one.
For Green Perspectives we looked for work that conveyed pressing concerns for the environment with subtlety and beauty. We sought out pieces that our audience and collectors could enjoy in their homes whilst also giving pause for thought. Living alongside a subtle reminder of what it is that we are caring for can be a very powerful way of changing habits.
Artists like David Mullen, Flora Wallace, Sophie Mason and Becky Allen make work through sustainable practices. After a moment of clarity and consciousness at Art School, David Mullen realised that the materials he paints with (and upon) should be kind to the environment. This stimulated a new way of working that sees David extracting pigments from natural materials and pushing them to their limits without compromising his sumptuous, painterly style.
Artists Angela Gilmour and Hilde Lambrechts both have backgrounds and careers in environmental science which informs their artistic output. Hilde’s sculptures are carefully crafted porcelain pieces of coral which provide shelter for the sea creatures within. These tactile, enchanting objects communicate a concern for coral reefs and the great steps scientists are taking to protect them. It is now up to the rest of the world to take notice and change their habits also.
The single flower stem of Tamsin Nagel’s work is a micro example of a much larger problem that faces our planet. The journey of a single flower which is mass produced, cut and transported to our supermarkets at great expense to be bought and displayed in our homes for several days before wilting and dying, is delicately captured with an intricate and deceptively simple pencil drawings.
Eco-Geo I 2020 | Various iron oxides and terre verte with glazes of indigo, weld and rose madder on linen | 25 x 25 cm
Let’s begin with artist David Mullen, whose ambition is to create bio-degradable, non-toxic oil paintings.
David’s painting Eco-Geo I is the first in an ongoing series of geometric abstractions based on the colour interactions of naturally occurring pigments.
This work specifically explores how plant-based glazes can colour natural earth pigments. Four different iron oxide pigments (a burnt sienna, Indian red and two yellow ochres) and a terre verte have each been glazed with yellow from weld, blue from indigo and red from madder. The title is a play on the term Neo-Geo and alludes to the importance of re-shaping abstract painting as an ecologically sustainable artform.
David is an artist who deals with the relevance of contemporary painting and abstraction. A desire to reduce the waste created as a by-product of his paintings has led to a radical shift to make his practice more ecologically sound.
His ambition is to create oil paintings that, if unsuccessful, could safely be put onto a compost heap rather than into landfill. The paintings must therefore be biodegradable and non-toxic. This has allowed him to cultivate his long-standing interest in colour and the materiality of paint, by forcing him to use natural earth pigments and organic pigments synthesised from plants, such as woad, weld and madder.
The ultimate goal is to make paintings using pigments synthesised from plants grown in compost containing previous paintings.
Becky Allen's choice of handmade, natural paper is an integral component of her meticulously inscribed, meditative works.
Full Circle Light (left) Dark (right) 2019 | Ink on Quianlong bamboo paper | Each 45 x 45 cm
Full Circle (Light) and Full Circle (Dark) are made from Quianlong Bamboo paper. This very special paper – made by hand in China by Mr Chen in Sechuan Province – is known for its soft and absorbent quality. The furnish (the water-suspended mixture of paper pulp from which paper is made) is Ci Bamboo with Dragon Beard Grass. Mr Chen recently passed away leaving the paper in limited supply since his methods of making have not been passed on to the next generation.
The process of repeating drawn lines reflects ancient Eastern philosophies on the cyclical nature of time, with each end a new beginning. The concepts of Samsara, wandering and circuitous change and Yantra, a geometrical symbol used in rituals and meditation, inform the drawing's boundless cyclicality.
Becky's output is deeply connected with the natural world; it both reflects and embodies it. The organic topography created by wavering texture between the reverberation of paper and ink, embodies both transient and perennial natural forms, be it an undulating sea, ancient rock formation or light falling between leaves.
“Through a ritualistic practice, I explore drawing as a form of meditative catharsis in which rhythmical works channel the movement and energy of repetitive mark making. My artworks are contemplative, profound statements on the passage of time and physical manifestations of a personal journey.”
Becky's practice and projects completed in communities around the world, involve extensive work in developing natural dyeing processes, often using source materials indigenous to her surroundings and recycling her own drawings to produce new works.
78° North, Sint Johnsforden 2019 | Oil on wood | 28 x 80 cm
Artist and former physicist Angela Gilmour presents a response to her experience on The Arctic Circle residency program.
78° North, Sint Johnsforden is one of a series of paintings made during her three-week expedition during the Summer Solstice in 2019. The Arctic Circle residency invites international artists, scientists and innovators to live and work aboard a Barquentine Tall Ship while sailing the waters of the international territory of Svalbard, an Arctic archipelago just 10 degrees latitude from the North Pole.
Angela Gilmour’s practice concentrates on the study and survey of shorelines and the way we interact with these natural borders. This theme is urgent in the context of ongoing and increasing discussions around climate change and the commons, with topics ranging from global warming to extractivism, from land possession and use, to sustainable consumption.
Sophie Mason’s creative process
Sophie Mason’s current body of work involves dyeing large rolls of canvas with plants from her local area.
Over a period of many months, Sophie uses the fabric of the canvas as an intermediary for actions within nature. Washing it in the sea, burying it in sand and soil, tying it to trees, rubbing herbs, ash and coal into it. She uses materials from her immediate surroundings to dictate the canvas’ patina. The residual build-up of stains that occur through these actions creates a map of the land and the physical body on the blanket.
Mason explores the idea that significance can be accumulated through time, wear and affection. Just as a well-loved object deteriorates with lifelong love, her works hope to exhibit the residue of care built up over months of actions between artist and environment.
Tamsin Nagel’s August British Agapanthus, M&S 2020 | Pencil on paper | 77.2 x 68 cm
Tamsin Nagel offers us a glimpse at a two-year-long project, of works featuring intricately drawn flower stems, bought from large chain supermarkets in London and documented once in a state of decay.
The crunchy and mouldy flora have an underlying wry tone: the seemingly quiet beauty of the drawings is juxtaposed with the reality of this mass farmed, imported, and mass consumed commodity that we all enjoy for a few days before the flowers quickly start to expire. And yet there is something beautiful about a quietly decomposing supermarket flower.
From Sophie Mason’s Barcelona series 2019 | Avocado ink, walnut ink, rust, fire embers, olive oil, cherry blossom water, forest floor dust, Mediterranean sea water, sand, rain water, tramontana, rosemary water, lavender water on canvas | 35 x 25 cm
Read an interview with Sophie here
ICUs (Intensive Care Units) 2019 | Six porcelain pots with celadon glaze | Dimensions variable
Canadian artist Hilde Lambrechts has created ICUs (Intensive Care Units) as an empathetic gesture towards one of the most beautiful and threatened ecosystems on the planet: the coral reefs.
“When I read about coral farming, a method to raise coral in protected nurseries in order to repopulate a degrading reef, I envisioned rows of intensive care units, wherein a fragile reef creature could be nurtured.”
ICUs are about the much-needed protection of coral reefs, which host 25% of all marine life. These wall-hanging pieces are largely unglazed on the outside mimicking bleached coral, to which new life can attach. The glazed micro-environment on the inside holds a coloured creature, a sparkle of life. The re-growth of corals in environmentally controlled capsules is a method that is tried today in an attempt to repopulate dead reefs.
All pots are turned on the potter’s wheel, meticulously embellished by hand using instruments such as needles and are fired to maturity. They were all made, glazed and fired in Hilde's Ottawan studio, Canada.
Hilde – a former biologist – is concerned with climate change and the human footprint on our environment. She is influenced by her scientific background, researching her subject in depth before communicating her ideas in a visual manifestation. “Through beauty I lure the viewer to open their mind to the serious environmental and socio-economic issues that mankind is facing today and aim to increase their empathy for life in all its forms, and their willingness to act.
I often feel helpless about the destruction of our ecosystems. I protest through my art.”
Flora Wallace's creative process
Lastly, ceramic artist, ink maker, illustrator and florist Flora Wallace gathers waste from New Covent Garden flower market to make botanical ink works.
“I began making inks as a result of a longstanding interest in plants and colour. I have often been struck by how much waste the floristry industry produces.
Installations are usually temporary; the flowers are often thrown away the following day which has always been hard to watch. For me the practice of making inks is a way of engaging with the seasons, time, and an exploration of place.”
As part of an ongoing study, Flora approaches her work from the point of view of scientific experimentation. Variable components include the paper, the effect of time and additives such as alkaline bicarbonate of soda and acidic vinegar. Flora records each part of her process whilst slowly refining and manipulating her components to create a balance between materials to achieve the desired result.
Green Perspectives is a dedicated section of the Collective’s Spring Auction 2020. Their auction will take place via video link at 5pm on March 28th. Additionally, view a live feed at invaluable.com.
Images © each artist | Text © Francesca Wilson / The Auction Collective | Banner image features a detail of 'Lux' by Becky Allen
